CNN)Topeka, Kansas, Mayor Michelle De La Isla has a mission: Convince the residents of her medium-sized, Midwestern city who have not been touched by the coronavirus pandemic that this is their fight too.
During news conferences she posts online, she pleads with people to listen to the facts and to understand what could be coming their way. But Topeka, home to some 125,000 people, is not experiencing the worst of the crisis that has rocked major population centers and the coastal areas of the United States. Kansas had only 482 confirmed cases of Covid-19 out of the more than 200,000 cases in the nation, as of Wednesday evening.
The disparity has put De La Isla, a single mom and the first Latina mayor of Topeka, in the position that many other local officials are in around the country: Implementing and enforcing the same strict distancing guidelines seen in the most impacted parts of the country on populations who haven't come face-to-face with the disease, all to try to slow and stop the spread of the virus.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, issued stay-at-home instructions earlier this week, but as mayor of the state's capital city, implementing that falls largely to De La Isla, also a Democrat, and the local officials she works with.
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